The Village Hidden in Saturn's Rings
by C.B. Magique
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki is the new kid at a high school on the other side of the solar system. Life is anything but mundane. Between androgynous peers, dating wars, eccentric teachers, impromptu hallway karate matches and Naruto's own zany imagination there's something darker lurking beneath everything and everyone at Minerva Academy. [AU]
1. Chapter 1

**This story once existed on this site ages ago but I deleted it because it was stupid. It has returned many years later now that it is less stupid. This story is one of those things where I don't even know why it had to be a Naruto fanfic but it is. Brace yourself for high school space ninjas. **

**I also don't know why I chose now of all times to upload it. I just wanted to upload fanfiction. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it is the intellectual property of someone else (namely Masashi Kishimoto). This is just fanfiction for fun, it is not for any kind of profit.**

* * *

Chapter #1: The Minerva Space Centre

Naruto Uzumaki looked up nervously at the departures screen hanging from the ceiling. His hands shook with the ticket, crinkling and creasing it slightly. He gulped as if that would help the shivering and palpitations but it didn't. He was even wondering if people in the spaceport weren't simply walking by but actually staring at him weirdly because of his bright orange jumpsuit and fluffy backpack that looked like a red fox. The outfit looked inconspicuous enough in his neighbourhood but among the suits and designer brands people were wearing in the station he looked absurdly out of place. He thought about pulling down the green cosplay goggles on his head but that might make him look suspicious to the security and he didn't need any dramas.

"Departure flight CQ777 to Minerva is now boarding at gate twelve. Please have your tickets ready at the security gate for inspection."

Naruto gasped. That was his flight! He ran off to find his gate and was about to enter the emigration area when he was suddenly pulled over by a very strong arm. He looked up at the man who'd caught him. He had short, unruly, brown hair and was wearing a black t-shirt with a detailed red sketch on the front and dark jeans.

"I found you!" he hissed.

"Let me go!" Naruto growled. He wriggled out of the man's grasp and turned to face him. "What do you want now?"

"Where did you think you were going? Up to Minerva?"

"Yes I was," Naruto replied, "and I still am!"

"That's what you think? And was I the only person in the world who didn't know this? You don't have my permission to go so how did your application even get to the school board?"

Naruto bit his lip and fidgeted with his ticket a little bit more, careful not to rip it.

"What…? You lying, deceitful little…" the man ground out.

"Tatsuya…" Naruto muttered, looking down and making sure to only look up when he was certain that he had his best puppy eyes on. "I'm going, Tatsuya. I found my fated shooting star."

Tatsuya's eyebrow twitched. "What are you talking about?"

"I made a wish a few weeks ago on a shooting star that something great would happen and it did," Naruto told him. "I'm going up to Minerva and you can't stop me!"

"And on your own? I don't think so! This whole thing still hasn't gone past me you little whelp! You don't go up unless I say you can and you can't. I don't care how badly you want it or how many bullshit quotes from a shitty anime you can parrot at me! And from a girly anime too, seriously. You're not going."

"It's too late for you to stop me! You're just being a tool because you didn't know about it. Who needs you!" Naruto screamed. He flipped the finger to his guardian and ran to catch up with the back of the long queue that was heading into the security gate.

"Hey, get back here you whelp! I'm not done with you!" Tatsuya shouted, running to the entrance of the gate but not following Naruto in.

Naruto blew a raspberry back at him. "If you want me back so badly why don't you come and get me?"

"You'll regret the day you ever set foot in my house the next time I see you!" Tatsuya yelled.

"I already do, so shut up!" Naruto screamed back.

Tatsuya sighed as he watched Naruto's retreating back. "That little bastard."

Naruto pouted and scrunched up his face. _"After all that, that's the goodbye I get? I thought he'd at least be surprised enough to give me a congratulations but no! Typical Tatsuya still has to hate me! I mean, really, he thinks he's the absolute boss of me! The day I stepped foot into his house was like the first day of Hell for me!"_

_WELCOME TO NARUTO'S IMAGINATION:_

_Tatsuya: Welcome to Living Hell, I hope you enjoy your stay and be sure to come back as soon as possible!_

_Naruto: Um… excuse me Master, but nobody returns from Hell._

_Tatsuya: Be quiet, fool! Have you finished breaking the unbreakable rocks yet? _

_Naruto: Yes Master, the unbreakable rocks are now broken. _

_Tatsuya: Very good, hey, wait. You haven't carved my image in stone perfectly enough! Do it again!_

_Naruto: But that wasn't even my job. _

_Tatsuya: Insolent worm, your punishment will be painful! Go to the Graveyard!_

_Naruto: Why is there a graveyard? We're in Hell, everyone's already dead. _

After what felt like a week of tedious paperwork and bag checking at gate after gate, Naruto was at last sitting in his seat on the shuttle. It was so different to how he'd imagined it. He thought it would be like an aeroplane with all of the seats in rows facing the front and luggage lockers overhead. Instead, the rows went along the walls of the cabin facing inwards and the two middle rows were back to back. The luggage lockers were underneath the seats. The slim, rocket-shaped shuttle was currently at rest on its track and when it launched it would speed along its rails, which curved upwards until they reached a vertical orientation. There was a thin window running along both walls of the cabin and looking through it, Naruto wondered if this would be the last time in a long time that he would get to see a blue sky. As the scheduled launch time approached shutters were lowered and blocked out all of the light from outside. The screens on the shutters started to show random yet colourful pictures of cute, calming scenes and creatures.

"Welcome to the Comet II," announced the PA system. "To ensure your health, safety and comfort on this journey, please pay close attention to this instructional video, even if you have travelled with us before. We hope you enjoy your journey."

The images on the screen changed from a continuous stream of adorableness and happiness to segmented images all showing the same woman in a cabin crew uniform. She smiled congenially as she instructed the passengers to change the direction of their seats to a forwards position for the launch and do up their seatbelts by pulling down the harness and clipping it to the belt

Tatsuya watched the shuttle from the spaceport ground floor. The site was gigantic and the rails cut through the tarmac and stretched out to sea. He could hardly see the end of it. His eyes followed the track to its tip pointing straight up at the sky. Naruto was going somewhere he'd never been and which he couldn't even see to, so he couldn't say that this sat well with him. He folded his arms and chewed his thumb nail anxiously.

Naruto squeezed the arm of his furry fox bag. He had taken it out of the luggage locker as soon as the cabin crew were out of sight. The knot in his stomach was tightening with every passing second.

"The shuttle is about to launch," the PA system announced.

Engineers and workmen started to clear the site in a hurry. Tatsuya watched, actually intrigued when a blue glow began to emanate from the engines. The air behind them wavered from such an extreme heat source. The next part happened so quickly Tatsuya barely saw it. The connections where the tracks met the shuttle sparked brightly and the shuttle was suddenly zooming down the rails at a super high speed.

Naruto was about to rip the arm off his red fox as his body was pressed hard into his seat. The shuttle was shaking slightly as it ripped through the atmosphere and despite the air conditioners keeping the shuttle cool he felt so hot he was sweating. The launch didn't take long; it was probably only three minutes. He noticed the shuttle stop shaking and the shutters slide upwards. He was becoming more consciously aware of a shift between the heaviness he felt during take-off and the floating sensation he had now. It was rather nauseating but at the same time exciting. The only way he could describe it without making a reference to weightlessness itself was… ghostly. By not having weight, it felt as though he was hardly there at all.

The universe outside of the Earth's atmosphere was black and looked completely empty. Naruto wondered why. He thought he'd see the stars more clearly once he was in space but he couldn't see any.

His thoughts about that were cut short when the PA pinged and announced: "It is now safe to remove your seatbelt."

Naruto unclipped the safety mechanism and floated right up to the window. He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering where all of the stars had gone. Down on Earth he believed that escaping the atmosphere meant that he'd be before a beautiful black blanket of shiny jewels, painted by colourful gas clouds and milky star clusters.

"Um…"

Naruto turned to the small voice. A girl around his age with short bluish hair and a mousy face was hovering beside him, twiddling her fingers nervously. She was wearing a baggy white jacket with dark blue shorts and her face was furiously red. Yet she also had a very curious feature, her irises were silvery-white. Naruto could tell that she wasn't just blind with cataracts or something since the whiteness wasn't dull and her pupils were still visible. She had a focussed gaze, even when her eyes were darting all over the place

"Hi…" she said, in a voice so small it might as well have been a whisper.

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "What?"

"O-oh, uh, nothing. I j-j-just wanted to s-say, uh, hi."

"Yeah? OK. Why?"

"I… I w-was sit-sitting next t-to you." _"And you look really handsome,"_ she would have added if she had the nerve.

"Oh… well, what's up with your voice. Do you have a talking disorder?"

"Wh-what? No! I… um," her eyes shifted from left to right and she looked down to avoid his eyes. She noticed the black expanse of space from the corner of her eye. "It's kind of pretty…"

"Huh? What's pretty?" Naruto asked. He held up his fox bag. "This?"

"A-actually, I mean o-outside."

"That's pretty? But you can't see the stars. Where the hell are they?"

"Th-they're very di-difficult t-to see… be-because of the sun… and the l-light. You only s-see them in… in long exposure photos and in the d-darkness behind planets. B-but I like space… I like space wi-without stars. It seems… pure."

Naruto gave her a puzzled sidelong glance. _"This girl is kinda weird,"_ he thought.

"Really?" he said, looking out into the endless blackness. He hadn't thought about that. He'd never heard it directly mentioned before but in physics classes he'd learnt that a light could be drowned out by another much stronger light. He didn't quite remember the actual physics of it, though. "That's pretty interesting. Hey, what's your name?"

"O-oh! I… I'm… h-Hinata… h-Hyuuga. Hinata Hyuuga," she replied, feeling like she was on cloud nine just because he wanted to know her name.

"Nice to meet you, Hinata," Naruto said. "You're pretty smart."

Hinata clasped her hands in her lap and bowed much deeper than necessary, almost hitting Naruto in the face. "Ni-nice t-to m-meet you too."

Naruto nodded and turned his full attention back to outer space, this time trying to see if he could defy physics by catching a glimpse of some stars. Hinata tapped the tips of her index fingers together and turned her gaze to the little red fox that was Naruto's backpack. "That…" she started. Naruto looked at her again. "Th-that's… a Buddy Bag."

"Ha, yeah," Naruto replied. "It's kinda old though. I've had it for ages."

Hinata seemed to forget love at first sight and started to talk a little straighter. "That one… it-it… _he's_ called Kurama Kian-kian the Fox. He was a special edition. They don't sell him anymore."

"That's true," Naruto murmured and started to think about that. "You know a lot about Buddy Bags then. You're the first person I've met who knew mine on sight."

"I… I h-have one too." She floated down to the luggage locker to retrieve hers and brought it back to show him. It was a lilac bunny rabbit with both ears sticking right up. It was soft and fluffy like Naruto's Buddy Bag. "Do you… do you… kn-know th-this one? Her na-name is Amelia Flutter-flutter the Rabbit. Th-they… s-still have her in st-stock." Hinata looked down, embarrassed. Was that really the best she could do for conversation?

Naruto just nodded, not really knowing how he was supposed to answer that. He looked down at the Buddy Bag in her hands and noticed a pulse of light travel through paths that looked like veins on her hands and end at her fingertips, which caused them to twitch. She caught him looking and gasped. "A-ah! P-p-please! D-do-don't b-be worried! Only my arms a-are l-l-like this! It was… an accident…"

She hung her head, letting Naruto know that this wasn't a subject that she wanted to be pressed on. Naruto changed the subject anyway. "How long do think it will be until we get to Minerva?"

"I don't know… th-the ship stops a-at the moon to refuel."

"I see…"

* * *

Almost twenty-four hours later Naruto awoke to the voice of the PA speaking over everyone. He rubbed his eyes and looked to the seat next to him where Hinata was returning to her spot and fastening her seatbelt.

"Hinata-chan, what's happening?" he asked.

"The shuttle," Hinata started shyly. "It's… it's landing o-on Minerva now."

"Really? How long has it been?"

"T-twenty-three a-and a half hours."

"Wow, I read in a book once that it used to take seven years to get to where the Minerva is now."

"S-seven years is… a l-long time," Hinata stated.

"I know! If I wanted to get to Minerva back then that would mean I had to get on a shuttle when I was ... uh... six! I think…"

"Y-yes… oh, look! It's amazing!" Hinata exclaimed, seeing the view the outside had to offer.

Naruto also turned to look at what was showing through the window. They could now see a space centre against the golden background of a ringed planet, the colours of which were accented by the blackness of outer space.

"Look at Saturn," Hinata said quietly, completely engrossed in the beauty of the colourful rings of ice and fine dust that were like a round and solid rainbow. The golden clouds over the planet's surface were bright under the rays of the sun that Naruto was sure was very, very, very far away. "It's so beautiful," Hinata whispered, "almost as beautiful as space."

"That space centre must be Minerva," Naruto muttered to himself. "I think… this is the best day of my life that no other day will ever amount to, so…"

Hinata turned to him curiously.

"I will never say 'this is the best day of my life' ever again."

* * *

When Naruto and Hinata got off the shuttle they were instructed by an older student from the Minerva Academy to get on one of the buses provided that would take them to the aforementioned school. From there they were instructed to take seats at the front of the school auditorium. The Student Representative Council was on the stage with two members standing ahead of the others. The girls were wearing bright yellow dresses with short, white blazers that had black trimming. For the boys it was dark purple pants and a light purple shirt combined with a blazer of a similar colour. Of the two leaders standing ahead of the others there was a very plain-looking girl who had brown eyes and brown hair that was tied into two buns. The other leader was a black-haired boy with a bowl cut and thick, fuzzy eyebrows that Naruto found… _distracting_.

The girl stepped forward to the microphone and spoke to the new students. "Good morning everyone! Today we're here to welcome the new students and congratulate them on receiving passage into our school: Minerva Academic and Vocational Secondary School. And of course, to all returning students, welcome back! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Tenten and I'm proud to announce this Orientation Day officially open! Orientation Day is the special day for the new students to try out all of the subjects we have to offer here at the school and pick the ones they wish to pursue. Now, without further ado, the Year Two students from the piloting classes have a special flight show that they would like to perform specially for the new students. But of course, everyone is welcome to watch."

The lights dimmed to black and the blackout curtains behind the stage spread open revealing a large screen. It showed the dark reaches of space in an area with a minimal amount of visible stars. Naruto watched intently. Nothing happened for a while but then three spacecraft zoomed into view from out of nowhere. They split into different directions, leaving coloured tails behind. The audience gasped in amazement, especially the new students. Four new spacecraft came into the picture at a curve, creating a coloured spiral that met at the centre of the screen. More spacecraft rocketed across the screen. The pilots created a spider web of tail streaks across the dark sky. The spacecraft flew out of view and waited for their streaks to disappear before returning to write cursively in the blackness of space: 'Welcome to Minerva!' The entire audience erupted into applause and cheers.

After the performance, before anyone had even been dismissed, Tenten ran to the hanger. She got there just as the pilots of the spacecraft in the flight show were leaving and going into the changing rooms to remove their pilot suits. The last person who came out stuck out from the crowd because instead of wearing a purple and white suit like all of the other boys he wore a black and white suit. He undid his long, tightly tied up hair and turned his silver-eyed gaze to Tenten.

"Neji!" exclaimed Tenten. "You led that performance so brilliantly! Honestly, I think you'll become the best pilot in the entire Solar System."

"Thank-you for the compliments," Neji replied. "You know I appreciate it so much coming from you." He gave her a peck on the cheek and turned to follow the other pilots in the changing rooms.

* * *

After all of that it was time for the principal to give his address and then there were some short announcements from teachers. What those announcements lacked in length they made up for in numbers and it was an entire hour before the second to seventh year students were dismissed. It was another half an hour before the Year One students were finally able to get out of their seats. They were directed to another room in the hall just outside the auditorium and had to move through a number of stations to receive room keys, campus maps and packages with their important school-related documents and supplies. Then they were all told to look for their dormitory rooms before trial lessons began.

The campus wasn't as enormous in area as Naruto expected. That made sense, given that space would be an issue on a space station but what didn't make much sense was the way that the buildings on the campus were designed in such a way that it looked like someone had failed quite badly at 3D Tetris. And all of the Tetris blocks were partially melted. The dormitory, however, was removed from the rest of building, separated by the sports oval. He couldn't tell if it was one building or a lot of buildings making up one complex. It was a combination of tower-like buildings that all shared the same ground floor and first floor and as they went up (as high as twelve storeys) some floors were connected seemingly at random by bridges or by arbitrarily merging the floors of two towers.

As he was taking the elevator to his floor, Naruto looked down at the package in his hands. Inside, all folded and wrapped up nicely, were his new school uniform and all of the essential software packages he needed for his subjects. He took his time walking along the dormitory corridor looking at the numbers on the doors until he came to a one labelled with the number 1234. He stopped here. The door was already open and the room was unoccupied so he entered it without hesitation. It was set out like a very small open-plan apartment with a kitchen to the right. Ahead of the kitchen counter were two beds that had been made very neatly. In addition to the desk chairs, there were two armchairs currently in front of a TV that was set into the wall and a balcony at the back of the room. There were two other doors either side of the beds that led into a bathroom and a cupboard.

Naruto picked the bed furthest from the sliding glass door of the balcony and put his things down, including his Buddy Bag. He took the day's timetable out of his package and stared at it. He supposed he'd better get down to the first subject, which was music. The trialling periods started in only half an hour.

* * *

Naruto trudged back to his room and collapsed onto the bed he'd picked. He definitely labelled that as the most tiring day of his life. He had done badly in all of the subjects that he trialled but when it came down to choosing he supposed that music would definitely have to drop, especially after the way he nearly suffocated himself trying to blow into a trumpet. Their teacher in the computer science subject gave them a game to play where a collection of random shapes had to be assembled into cubes as they fell from the top of the screen Tetris-style. Most people appeared to be good at it, especially the long-haired girl and the redheaded boy sitting next to him. For piloting the instructor sat them at simulations, all of which Naruto failed. In the mechanics class he managed to short the circuit he was trying to put together and he would rather forget home economics and art altogether. He rubbed the raw patch of sore skin on the back of his hand where he'd dropped turpentine and bleach on himself.

"I'd better just face it, I'm terrible at everything," Naruto muttered. He rolled over onto his stomach in self pity and noticed something different about the other bed: there was a Buddy Bag in the shape of a white mouse sitting on it and an equipment package that was exactly the same as his.

"Um… excuse me…"

Naruto turned to the direction of the door. He heard it slide shut and the person who'd just entered came into view. They had long, dark hair and they were wearing a dark pink hoodie with a heart on the front and blue jeans. It was the girl who sat next to him in computer science.

"Hey, this is a boys' dormitory," Naruto stated.

"I know."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Well… I am a boy…"

Naruto's eyebrows rose and his head dropped forward in disbelief. "No way, don't pull my foot!"

The boy closed his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "You think I'm a girl. Everyone thinks that! Do you know how embarrassing it is to walk into-?"

"I can see where you're taking this," Naruto hastily interrupted. "So, I guess we're roommates then?"

"I guess… seeing as you're here as well as me. Then good evening roommate!" The other boy was right in front of Naruto in a flash and shaking his hand. "My name is Haku Fuyutama."

_NARUTO'S IMAGINATION: _

_Haku: Hi, I'm Haku. I don't really come from around here._

_Naruto: Halleluiah! I've been saved! Please, save me!_

"Well, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. Um… nice to meet you, roommate." Naruto chuckled nervously. "At least now I have a friend… and they have a Buddy Bag too!"

Haku blushed. "Oh… um… yes. Everyone says that the one I have is cute. It's a special edition because Søren Pip-pip is normally a sort of pale pink like a rose pink. Except when they did the special Nature edition where all the bags were coloured like normal animals. They also released him in the Snowy Whites edition that only turned up for three Christmases a few years ago. I always get embarrassed about mine even though most people don't worry about me owning it because I look like…" Haku's shoulders slumped and he looked away, "I look like a _girl_."

_Haku: Oh no, I'm not here to save you. I'm Master's new apprentice! _

_Naruto: You're kidding me._

_Haku: Nope! Off to the Graveyard with you!_

"Hey, hey, don't worry about the Buddy Bag thing. Believe me, they're not for girls. I have one too, see?" Naruto held up his red fox.

Haku's eyes lit up. "You are so lucky! You got Kurama Kian-kian! They stopped selling him years ago! Now the only dog they sell is Erika, the girl one. And they only ever released Kurama as a regular edition. I didn't think anyone would still have one or if they did they'd keep it locked up in some kind of Buddy Bags collection vault."

"Yeah, I suppose… I haven't really looked into it." Naruto decided that conversation needed to be derailed before Haku got too into fanboying over fluffy toys. "So, do you know what subjects you're choosing?"

"Of course," Haku replied in a heartbeat. "It was so easy to see what I was good at and what I wasn't good at and what I found most fun so all I have to do is write them up on the timetable form and send it to the registrar and then he should send back my timetable all written up completely."

"I was bad at everything," Naruto moaned, further discouraged by the fact that his own roommate was doing so much better than him. "Maybe I should tell the principal that I'm dropping out and going home," Naruto sighed and added the last part under his breath so that Haku couldn't hear, "so that my guardian can bash me up."

"I used to believe that no person can be bad at absolutely everything but now I can see that I was wrong."

"_Thanks Haku,"_ Naruto thought dryly. _"I feel so much better with that last statement."_

"Instead of picking the subjects you're good at pick the ones that you find the most fun to do so that you have the chance to improve them."

"Maybe…"

* * *

Naruto let Haku use the only desktop computer in the room first since he was already sure about his subjects. Naruto himself was up until late that night. Haku had fallen asleep ages ago but left the curtains open. The light side of Saturn created a glow that was equal to that of the moon only it was the colour of the sun. He needed ten subjects in all to fill the timetable; four compulsory subjects and six electives consisting of at least one vocational option. He tapped a stylus to his lip, fighting the urge to nibble on it. So far he had nine subjects down and one more to go. His roaming eyes caught the icon above a certain attractive choice: piloting. He touched the option with the stylus and it added itself to his list.

Naruto turned around on the swivel chair so that his whole body faced Saturn's glow and the darkness of space. The space station mimicked the daytime and night-time hours on earth. During prescribed daytime hours the dome over the little colony was an exact copy of the sky, even mimicking the sunrise and sunset but when night fell the hologram faded into real space so that Saturn, space and all of Saturn's moons in all their glory could be seen (well, maybe not _all_ of Saturn's moons). He yawned and stretched. It was definitely time to change into his bed clothes and go to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter #2: The Dumbest of the Best

School began in the next three days on a Monday. Haku was obviously the more organized of the two who shared dormitory 1234. He packed his uniform school bag with all of his essential stationery and devices and added a key ring with the figure of a mouse to the handle. He tied his hair up in a low pony tail and decided to leave his bangs free. After his morning routines were done and he was about to leave he turned to his roommate. "Naruto, it's a school day. You have to get up."

Naruto yawned. "Gimme five more minutes…"

"But it's the first day of school," Haku insisted.

"I'm up!"

Naruto tried to literally jump out of bed. He tripped on his sheets and fell face first onto the carpeted floor, feeling a horrible burn on his cheek.

"Ow!"

"_Actually,"_ Haku thought, _"that was easier than I thought it would be."_

* * *

Naruto burst into his first class of the day, which was computer science, with his uniform untidy, crinkled and untucked. His tie was undone too and he had a raw, red burn on his left cheek. The other students turned to stare him. Everyone was already there, or so it seemed. Naruto stared back at the other students. "Am I late?"

"The teacher isn't here yet," replied a girl with short pink hair and a red bow to use as a headband. She was wearing the uniform for the Year One girls, which was a bright yellow, collared dress with long sleeves. The girls also wore red ties and high black stockings. On both shoulders was the school emblem.

Naruto stared at her. She looked familiar to him. "Wait… aren't you… Sakura? Sakura Haruno?" exclaimed Naruto.

Sakura started to sweat. _"Damn! I hoped that a whole seven years here at Minerva would make him forget about me! And how did he get here anyway?"_

"It is you! I haven't seen you since last year. What's up?"

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" asked a slightly deeper male voice.

Naruto looked across the isle to the person sitting on the other side. Any student close by could see a vein almost pop out of his head. He was staring at a slightly older boy with black hair and eyes that Naruto was familiar with. "Sasuke Uchiha! What are _you_ doing here?"

"My parents pay to send me here, Dunce," Sasuke snapped back. "I didn't know your _guardian_ had enough money to pay for anything more than a vocational education."

"FYI Mr I-think-I'm-so-much-better-than-everyone-else, I won a scholarship for this school!" Naruto retorted. A redhead in the row in front turned his head to listen, suddenly taking an interest in the conversation.

"There must have either been nobody else applying or a daredevil contest for stupid people if you were the winner," Sasuke replied without missing a beat. The rest of the class laughed.

"Right Sasuke!" Sakura instantly agreed.

"_Still the same Sakura,"_ Naruto thought. _"All over her precious 'Sasuke' like he's king of the universe or something."_

Still, he couldn't help but defend himself. "No! It was a proper exam!"

"Yeah right! How does a vocational student manage to pass an academic exam?" Sasuke snorted. "You wouldn't even have half of the knowledge you'd need."

"Obviously I did have enough knowledge!" Naruto snarled.

"You probably just got a handicap because you don't _have_ any academic training," Sasuke continued.

"Yeah? Well so what if I don't have much academic knowledge? At least I've got skills and I could pummel you with them!"

"At least I don't _live_ on Earth."

The classroom descended into a sudden silence. Before there had been little pockets of conversation all around but now everyone was hushed and all eyes turned to Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto bared his teeth at Sasuke and growled. Even Sakura had her brow creased.

"Sasuke..." she whispered, "wasn't that just a little bit cruel?"

"You're a bastard," Naruto growled. "And if Earth's such a shithole why did you go to school there?"

Naruto turned on his heel and kept walking down to the front of the classroom, looking around for a place to sit. Haku waved to him from the front row. With a sigh, Naruto made his way down the steps to the front row, not surprised to find no one else sitting there except for some other nerd with square-framed glasses and what appeared to be a pair of headphones over his ears.

"Haku, why are you sitting down the front of the class?" Naruto asked. "That's really stupid on the first day."

"Actually, it's a lot smarter than most people think."

Naruto was about to reply to this when he heard Sasuke speaking to the teacher. "Sir, you're late."

"_And he says it __so__ politely as if he isn't pissed off to all Hell!"_ Naruto growled inwardly. Naruto turned to look at the teacher. He had silver hair that didn't look like it had been combed that morning and was wearing a mask and a bandana that was tilted to cover his left eye. He was wearing a white jacket with the school emblem on one shoulder and white pants that matched the jacket. The jacket was unzipped and behind it was a tight black top. Naruto also noted that he was reading a bright pink book as he approached the bottom of the classroom. A sudden look of horror engulfed Naruto's features as he realized what the book was.

"Pervert teacher!" Naruto screamed so loudly even the students in the back row had to cover their ears.

The teacher turned his head so that his only visible eye (that remained half-lidded as if he was bored) was glaring at Naruto. "Whatever you needed to say you didn't need to scream it. I don't think anyone in this class has a hearing disorder."

"But that's a pornography book!" exclaimed Naruto, pointing an accusing finger at the book, to the teacher, and then back to the book.

"Naruto," Haku hissed. "That's disrespectful! You don't even know that it's a… _dirty_ book."

However, the teacher's eye had widened just a little bit. "How did you know that it's porn?"

"My guardian collects those books!" Naruto hissed with loathing for the X-rated book. "He has every single volume right up to the latest!"

"Really?" the teacher replied. "Would you like to take a peek at what's inside these pages during a detention at lunchtime today?"

"Uh… no."

"Then please sit down, you stupid kid."

The teacher put his book down on the teacher's desk at the front of the room as well as the book bag that held his documents and classroom equipment. "Morning," he droned towards the whole class.

"Good morning sir," the rest of the class replied in a robotic monotony that they were used to.

The teacher raised his eyebrow. "Okay… I'm Kakashi Hatake and I'm your computer science teacher, as you can see. Oi, stupid kid, I told you to sit down."

"Don't call me 'stupid kid'," Naruto retorted. "I have a name! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto sat down next to Haku and opened the laptop that was built into the desk like everyone else had already done.

"Great, now that that little bother is out of the way, I'll just start taking the roll."

_NARUTO'S IMAGINATION: _

_Tatsuya: Naruto, before you embark on your perilous trip to the Graveyard I'd like you to meet my new partner in crime. _

_Kakashi: Yo. _

_Naruto: Master, may I have permission to do something unbecoming? _

_Tatsuya: Of course my slave._

_Naruto: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_

While he was doing this Haku leaned towards Naruto and whispered, "Do you see how his attention is focused more on the back rows? That's where he expects all of the naughty people to be so he keeps tabs on who they are… but he might already have a tab on you."

"Oh, you think?" Naruto muttered as he rolled his eyes.

* * *

Naruto's second lesson – and most exciting – for the day was the piloting class and he was surprised to find that Haku had decided to take it too.

"I wasn't all that great at it," Haku admitted, "but I found it more fun than taking two mathematics courses."

"That Orientation Day was lousy," Naruto stated. "Four of the subjects weren't optional, you have to do them! And I have maths next!"

Haku giggled. "Could it be that Naruto isn't a very academic person?"

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here."

Naruto opened the change room locker that had been appointed to him, with his name on it and everything. His school-issued spacesuit was already tucked into it. It was made up of two parts: a purple outer layer and a white inner suit that seemed to be a little bit baggy. It had some mechanical parts on the wrists and a device that fitted around his waist and chest that he had no clue as to the purpose of. However, the bagginess of the suit prevented it from sitting right. "Hey, Haku, I think this suit is a bit big for me."

"I'm thinking the same thing about my suit," Haku replied.

"Idiot," said Sasuke, coming up behind Naruto fully dressed and with his bangs pinned up behind his ears. "You have to press the button on your right wrist."

Sasuke reached over and pressed the button for Naruto. He could feel the air being sucked out and the material contracted so that the suit tightened enough to fit him like a second skin. The mechanical parts all automatically snapped into place with only a little bit of tugging and wriggling required to get them to feel comfortable. Naruto gasped, having never worn something so tight-fitting before. He blushed and covered his crotch with his hands.

"Stop it moron," Sasuke continued. "You're not naked."

Naruto growled at him, baring his teeth. "You're still not forgiven for this morning!"

Haku pressed the button on his wrist and his suit also tightened. "Thanks for the help Sasuke," he said. Sasuke ignored him and left the change room.

_NARUTO'S IMAGINATION: _

_Naruto: Hello Sasuke! Welcome to Hell. I hope you enjoy your stay because you are never leaving. _

_Sasuke: Untie me right now moron. _

_Naruto: Let me consider… no! Your punishment for being a jackass will soon be upon you. I sentence you to seventy-two hours of-_

_Haku: Come on Naruto, we don't want to be sidetracked already. The Graveyard awaits. _

Naruto folded his arms and growled. "We didn't need his help," he pouted. He took out the second part of the suit and pulled it on. He clipped it closed at the collar and turned around feeling eyes on him for the tenth time that day. A redhead, fully dressed, with minty blue eyes and heavy black outlines as if he wore heavy makeup was staring at him. There was a pink symbol on his left temple that Naruto didn't recognise. Eventually the redhead turned away and walked off.

"That guy is weird," Naruto whispered.

"Who?" asked Haku.

"That redhead with the weird tattoo on his forehead. He's been staring at me a lot ever since computer science," Naruto replied.

"Maybe he just wants to be friends," Haku suggested optimistically.

"Or maybe he wants to bully me," Naruto suggested as an alternative. "His stare is _murderous_! He's probably really vicious too!"

"Naruto, he's a person, not a wild animal," Haku reminded the boy. "He probably just wants to be friends."

"I'm telling you, he's wants to do me bodily harm!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing to his chest.

With a short growl Naruto took the purple boots out of the locker and locked his own clothes and shoes into it. Like the suit it fastened with a series of clips and felt a bit tight. "Why do we have to wear these stupid suits anyway?" Naruto asked.

"It's just better to wear these when you're piloting the Valkov," Haku answered.

"The what?"

* * *

The students in the piloting class were lined up in the hanger facing the Valkovs. The girls wore bright yellow suits like their uniforms that were exactly the same as the boys' suits with only the addition of support cups for their breasts. The Valkovs, as Naruto noted, were not like typical spacecraft that he'd seen in fiction books. They had squarish noses and a straight, wasp-like body. There were four fins at the back like torpedo fins and two straight, flat wings coming out of the sides.

The teacher appeared on time, unlike the last one, wearing the same suit as everyone else except it was red. He had an obvious scar over the bridge of his nose and his hair tied up in a high ponytail. He was reading something off a digital clipboard, barely taking note of his students. He looked up at his class and down at the girl he'd stopped in front of – Hinata. She had a pink towel wrapped around her, which was a little bit curious.

"What are you doing?" the teacher asked.

"Uh… um…" Hinata stammered. "I… it just felt… wrong t-to dress like this in p-public."

"I can understand how you feel but you're still going to have to take off that towel. You can't pilot the Valkov looking like you just came out of the shower. And that goes for the rest of you," he called down the line. Four other students who'd copied Hinata's example whipped their towels off upon being called out. Hinata let the towel drop and stood there so nervously she was almost shaking. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"Wow," Naruto whispered to Haku. "Hinata sure looks scared. I bet she's thinking she can't do it."

"Right, now girls," the teacher started, looking at people like Sakura and Haku.

"Why is he looking at me?" Haku whispered. "I'm wearing a boys' uniform!"

"If you have long hair or bangs you need to tie them behind your ears or head. If it's still loose enough to fly into your field of vision you'll need to bunch it up until it isn't. Out in space there's no gravity so the only thing that will keep your hair out of your eyes is a hair tie and a clip. If you haven't got one on you there are spares that the school keeps but it's not that hygienic to use them."

Haku undid his ponytail and redid his hair as a loose bun at the back of his head. Sakura reluctantly adjusted her ribbon so that it pushed back her bangs and consequently the rest of her hair, making it look like it had been spiked.

"You've all been appointed Valkovs so nobody should be competing for one. They're all the same anyway."

"Hey, sir, are you going to introduce yourself?" Naruto asked out of the blue.

The teacher stared at him for a while and every other student expected him to yell at Naruto for interrupting. "Oh, right, I almost forgot. You're the new _first years_! Very well, I'm Iruka Umino."

"Umino!" exclaimed Naruto, grabbing Haku by the shoulders and partially hiding behind him. "You're a relation of Tatsuya?!"

"That's my cousin's name," Iruka stated. "Are you Naruto?"

"That's me, what of it?"

"I'm pretty sure I would have gotten news from Tatsuya if you were coming up here but I didn't get a peep out of him. Was this supposed to be a surprise or something?"

"No, hell no!"

"Good, because I don't like it at the moment." The class giggled a little bit at Naruto's expense. Iruka sighed and continued. "When I give you a number you need to look for the Valkov parked at the dock with that number labelled on it. That's your Valkov for the rest of the year."

_NARUTO'S IMAGINATION:_

_Iruka: Hi, Naruto, welcome to the Graveyard. Three weeks of senseless digging start now._

_Naruto: Digging?_

_Haku: As punishment for being an incompetent slave to Master Tatsuya. _

_Naruto: But what's there to dig? There's nothing but dead people and maggots here._

_Iruka: Here is your shovel. Have fun and remember to put all of the dirt back where you found it when you're done. _

As soon as the students had their numbers they were free to go and find their machine. Naruto stared at his number. It was quite a high number, considering that the number of bays in the hangar was 50 and his number was 50. That also meant that it wasn't such a mystery to him that his Valkov was on the top floor of the hanger and by the time he got there the first row of Valkovs were already ready for launch. Naruto sighed. The only other machine on the seventh floor of the hanger with him was number 49 and that one was going to be piloted by the redhead with the blue eyes and heavy eye makeup… and that person was staring at him again. Naruto sighed and grumbled.

"Hey you, why are you constantly staring like that?"

"What are you talking about?" the other student replied with an ambiguous facial expression that could be interpreted as quizzical.

"You have been staring at me ever since computer science and it's already getting on my nerves! What is wrong with me? Is there a glaringly obvious, fat, red zit on my face that I haven't noticed or something?" Naruto shouted. "If you're going to keep staring at me with your heavily endowed eyes of death then at _least_ let me know who the hell you are so that I can get revenge on you later." _"Oh, fuck no, I didn't just say that out loud, did I?"_

The redhead stared at him silently while Naruto started to sweat. _"Now he's gonna beat me up for being a pest!"_

The actual answer made Naruto blink in surprise. "I suppose that's fair. You're Uzumaki, am I right?"

Naruto gaped at him. "How do you know me?"

"I'm Gaara," he simply said and got into the cockpit of his Valkov.

Naruto shook the confusion out of his head and decided to forget about him. _"I'll just say he's a jerk and leave it."_ He got into his own Valkov and pulled down the harness, surprised that he had to stand in the machine. The harness was uncomfortable around his torso so Naruto began to wriggle and fidget. Suddenly the Valkov's cockpit was closed automatically. Naruto panicked at first. The space around him became a large, green 3D grid with orange lines. He could see the other Valkov that was next to him but it had turned blue and the contours had been reduced greatly until the machine just looked like a collection of blue building blocks for children.

"Are you two ready?" came the voice of Iruka through a communication link. His face appeared in a holographic screen that popped out of nowhere.

"Erm… no…?" Naruto replied, trying to adjust his position and seatbelt.

"Don't try to adjust your seatbelt or position settings just yet. You'll find that the standing position is much better suited for outer space flight and the seatbelt is designed to support that. Wait until you're actually out there before you adjust them. Your Valkovs will be taking off in twenty seconds."

"Hey, I'm not ready!" Naruto exclaimed. The holo-screen disappeared leaving Naruto feeling like he had a dead weight in the pit of his stomach. He shut his eyes tightly. It was still at first then he suddenly felt gravity lift and the Valkov was moving. When he opened his eyes he couldn't really tell if he was outside because of the greenness of his view but he could see all of the other students in their Valkovs waiting to start.

"Um… sir," Sakura said, "I can't tell if I'm outside yet or not. Why is the screen like this?"

"This is the pilot interface for beginners," Iruka explained. "Driving a vehicle in space is a lot different to when you're planetside or in a space station because there's no sense of direction. The interfaces for spacecraft are designed with that in mind. The interface you're working with right now is a simplified version of the professional interface with less functionality to get you used to orienting yourself in space. Now, as you should be able to see, marked in your Valkovs as red polyhedrons, there are buoys set in a circle. I want you to work on figuring out the controls for your Valkovs by manoeuvring into this circle. If you did the simulation properly on Orientation Day it shouldn't be too difficult but if you're having trouble there are instructions for basic manoeuvres saved in the computers on all of the Valkovs."

Naruto gulped. _"Great, I don't think I did the simulation properly on Orientation Day."_

He looked over his controls. The Valkov was operated by two pedals for breaking and accelerating and two keyboards that were big enough for one's hands to reach from one side to the other without stretching too much. They were conveniently placed at the end of the arm rests so his arms didn't need to stretch out very much. He knew the keys and what they all did and he realized that piloting the Valkov wasn't easy. By pressing buttons, pressing a combination of buttons or even moving his finger on a button the functions changed. He started pressing the buttons that he knew that made the Valkov move forward… slowly. It seemed to work for a moment. Then he had to turn right. Doing that wasn't so difficult either.

"I think I'm doing better than I did at Orientation Day," he muttered to himself, quietly just in case saying it too loudly would jinx him.

Suddenly a communication link opened up and Haku's face appeared on a screen. "Hi Naruto! Doing well?"

"I'm fine," Naruto replied. "For now," he mumbled as an afterthought.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! I'm doing just great so far. I don't think I need the teacher's help just yet."

Haku beamed at that. "It's good to hear that you're doing so well already."

"Well, it's not like I'm actually doing that well-"

"So many other students are already asking for help, even me. I can't figure out what some of the programs do. Like there's a program called LAVA-11K and when I asked the teacher he just said that it keeps the Valkov stable while you're flying. I didn't really think that was necessary and I'm finding it difficult to fly with so many programs and so much data that I have to look out for so I just deleted a few to make it easier."

Another communication link opened and the screen showed Gaara. "W-what the hell!?" Naruto spluttered. "Gaara!? You can't just interrupt our conversation like this! How did you even do that?!"

"Haku," Gaara said, ignoring Naruto completely, "LAVA-11K is a background program and how you managed to access it is beyond me. It's a vital link between the computer and the machine. You know that every time you move more than one thruster has to be activated to make sure the Valkov doesn't veer off suddenly; you want to try to keep the same balance you would have if you were flying deep within a gravitational field. Of course, you can do that manually but LAVA-11K will do it automatically. It's a very important program."

Haku and Naruto just stared. Naruto turned to Haku's communication link with a look on his face that said, 'you're so very, very screwed'. Haku turned to Naruto and gave him an 'I'm so very, very screwed' look.

"Really," Haku replied, trying to put a smile on his face as if it was alright but he failed miserably and ended up looking panicked. "So then do you know what RAN does?"

Gaara didn't reply and just closed his communication link.

"Fish," Haku muttered. "I'm dead."

"Don't worry about it," Naruto said, trying to reassure him. "If you were smart enough to delete it you must be smart enough to go without it."

"Thanks, but that doesn't help. What'll happen to me when they find out I deleted some of the programs?"

"I don't think the punishment will be that severe." Haku sighed heavily and closed the link. "Say what? Haku!" Naruto exclaimed. "Damn it, now how do I open that thing?"

"Alright guys," Iruka said over a voice-only link. "I think you're all starting to get the hang of using the Valkov's controls so when you're ready I want you all to come and form a semi-circle around me."

The students one-by-one started to form their semi-circle around the red teacher's Valkov, the first one being Sasuke. When he was in the right place a communications holo-screen automatically appeared with Iruka in it. Iruka smiled at him, able to match the face and eyes to an ex-student of the school.

"I didn't expect any less of you, Uchiha," Iruka said. Sasuke grunted and averted his eyes from the screen.

The semi-circle formed quite quickly with only the exception of a few lagging ones who weren't quite stable in their machines. Haku was also struggling but eventually managed to join the end of the arch nervously.

"Hey, Naruto," he called through the link, "are you here yet?"

Haku didn't get an image only a scream in reply. "No, I'm not. Dammit! How does this thing work?!"

"Naruto," Iruka said. "What's your problem? Naruto?"

Strangely, Iruka didn't get a response. "Everyone, stay right here," he commanded. "I might have to go and get him."

He steered his red Valkov looking for Naruto and he wasn't hard to find. His Valkov was behaving erratically with no control. Iruka followed the unstable Valkov, ignoring the warning message to his left telling him that a student had crossed the marked boundary and which student it was. Iruka tried a few more times to contact Naruto in his Valkov but none of his attempts were working. "I don't understand," he murmured to himself. "I should only not be able to contact him when the teacher's Valkov is locked out of his computer. That's impossible for a student to do."

Naruto glanced at all of the information around him and tried to do something about it. _"This is the worst situation ever! All I wanted to do was reopen the communication. How did all of this happen?"_ He started to delete everything he saw on the screen no matter what it was.

Iruka was calculating in his machine what the best course of action was in this event. Suddenly, the student machine he was pursuing lagged in speed and started to drift. Iruka tried to think of something to do but the machines were too close, making the crash inevitable.

Naruto had felt the crash too but he didn't let it bother him. He was panting with relief while a red rectangle in the now non-gridded screen blinked with the word 'EMPTY' written in it.

* * *

Iruka shook his head as he inspected the damage done to both the student and teacher Valkovs. Naruto stood next to him pressing his fingers together guiltily while trying to think up an excuse even though in this case there could never be one. Whether he was guilty of doing it on purpose or whether it was purely accidental, he was in a lot of trouble.

Kakashi entered the hanger with a wave of his hand and: "Yo. What up?" as a greeting.

"Oh, what do you think?" Iruka snapped. "Thanks to this little idiot my class is stuck on simulations for a week while repairs are made to the Valkovs, unless you want to take over the class."

"I wouldn't mind. So, what kind of trouble are we in?"

"Two damaged Valkovs and two in need of reprogramming."

"I didn't think you were stupid enough to let this kid hack your machine."

"This kid didn't hack my machine. Some other student deleted some vital programs in their Valkov too."

"Uh, sir," Naruto stammered. "If you don't mind me asking… what… what's my punishment?"

"You!" exclaimed Iruka, pointing a finger at Naruto. "You are going to meet me on Saturday at seven a.m. sharp to clean spacecraft until every Valkov in the school is immaculate!"

"Aw man!" Naruto groaned. "No offence, but I think I liked the senseless digging better."

* * *

**Sorry for the fairly speedy update. I say sorry because this might give you the wrong impression of what my update schedule is actually like, I'm usually much slower than this. However, just for this story, you just may get regular, usually weekly updates because this has been kind of a pet project of mine for a while and there's a whole lot of world-building that I planned out for it. I squeezed in a lot of it into this chapter. **

**So basically, the way this space-ninja world works is: humans have spread themselves throughout most of the Solar System and there's some straightforward but pretty segregational power dynamics between people who still live around Earth and The Moon and people who live further out in space and there are reasons for this but those reasons are spoilers. As you probably gathered, Earth is considered to be the ghetto/slum of the Solar System to those who live away from it. There are also reasons for this and those reasons are also spoilers. **

**And yes, Sasuke was also being extra dicky back there by making fun of Naruto for being adopted as well as an Earthsider. BTW, in this canon, 'Earthdsider' is one of the more polite ways to refer to people living on Earth. If you want to be rude to them, you would call them 'Earthlings'. **

**There are also two types of education that a kid can pursue and it's not between public and private. Children can get an Academic Education, which is knowledge and information-based education modelled closely on traditional education. Students learn academic skills like reading and research, calculation and analysis of literature. It's usually expensive and so only richer students can gain access to it. On the other hand, there's Vocational Education, which is skills and jobs-based education. In this stream of education students are taught various skills that will prove useful for getting employment. It's more like training for employment than anything else. It is quite cheap and widely available and is usually offered with a little bit of academic training as well but not nearly as much as an Academic Education. Minerva Academy is an unusual school in that its curriculum is both academic and vocational. **

**I think those are all of the notes that are immediately relevant. **

**Peace out and don't forget to review!**


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